Tag: soil

The Chicken Companion

The Chicken is one of the most successful species on the planet. The chicken has traveled the world, exhibited in shows and been pampered affectionately. For centuries they have enjoyed the best seats, fully catered free rides on ships, planes, trains, buses, canoes and rafts. Contrary to recent reports, Chickens are likely to adapt faster to climate change than humans. They have adapted twice already during their companionship with humanity. They are set to stay.

Chickens Process Waste and Provide Perfect Protein

Over Ten Thousand years ago, the chicken became the first domesticated animal. What attracted the chicken to people was the abundance of waste. Chickens don’t mind eating slightly off-meat and love maggots and other distasteful horrors. Chickens rarely compete with humans for food. They eat a wide range of food and grit. People probably decided to keep the persistent chickens because they are relatively easy to catch at night and have highly nutritious eggs. They would have seen how quick and efficient chickens are to clean the waste.

What do Chickens have that we don’t?

Chickens often have carers. Chickens are also opportunistic eaters and learn to adapt to dietary changes. They are persistent parents. In good conditions they will breed every year. The chicks learn quickly and are independent within a few short months. Quite often, if things go poorly in the mothering house, a chicken will simply take a short break, fraternise with her favourite rooster then start laying and sitting again. Each generation provides a chance to genetically adapt. Even old hens [ie. our 9-year-old chicken, ‘Ginger’] suddenly started laying again if the conditions are right.

Chickens wake up with purpose and sleep well.

Chickens have been bred to be docile. Many domestic animals can die from stupidity. Chickens are highly unlikely to cause themselves harm. Chickens have been known to accidentally drown or get trapped. Nor are Chickens so gallant that they choose to die. However, Roosters have been known to nobly defend the flock.

Fast Movers

Chickens come originally from the dense forests of the Tropics. Scientific evidence has demonstrated that they have already adapted twice before to enable them to grow obese and to breed all year round. They can adapt again, if they are given the r. Dr Carl-Johan Rubin of Uppsala University.

When we provide chickens with the chance to shelter in the cool sections of a food forest, they help to control the weeds, fertilise the trees and clean up fallen fruit. Their tendency to get fat makes it easy for us to catch them when we need to.

Creative Chickens Train Their Keepers

It is us, the keepers that need to adapt if we wish to continue enjoying the company of Chickens. We can devise solar passive chicken houses, give the chickens some self-determination about where to lay or hang out during the day and take time out to observe them.

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Double-Digging Crudely Hits Pay Dirt but…

Double digging is a technique where you dig, put the soil to the side, dig a bit more and toss that second lot of soil into the first hole. Essentially, you are turning the soil and bugs upside down and letting their shocked, dead bodies feed the your new plantings. In thin soils (like dryland soils) you would be bringing up the subsoil and trying to turn it into top soil. Double digging is destructive.

Double-Digging can be Instantly Impressive

The growth on plants (and sometimes the weeds) is quick and leafy. Double digging is an old farming technique used for centuries in countries with cool climates, deep soils and a careful regime where the soil is rested for long periods to try to recover. If you are in the modern world where land is expensive and there is pressure on you to do use (no time to rest it), or you want to use the space that is close to your backdoor not far away in a forgotten back corner of your garden. Then double digging is not your best option.

There is a serious cost to double-digging. Put bluntly, double-digging does irreparable damage to your soil. Double-digging

kills the micro-organisms in the soil. The dead creatures make double digging so amazingly productive. Their little bodies become instant fertiliser for the crops.

damages the structure of fragile soils and tempts erosion due to weathering by water and wind.

can bring up the useless, hard clods of subsoil unless you are digging on a rare fertile flood plain.

has a high risk of erosion from the moment vegetation is removed or hard-hoofed animals are put to graze. The typical Australian soil is only centimeters deep. This risk is amplified by the process of digging.

Digging can be satisfying.

We can buy a fruit tree, dig a hole and put the tree in the ground. In a short time the tree may be fruiting and voilà we have the start of a food forest. Or do we? A real food forest captures condensation (more condensation can come to your garden than rainfall). A Permaculture forest builds soil. Condensation is trapped and rainfall stored in the soil. Water is used and re-used. Organisms are nurtured not sacrificed. A good permaculture forest design optimises the use of natural energies and serves to increase the health of the soil. Healthy soil gives us healthier trees and more nutritious fruit.

What Soil Really Wants

Good soil has 5 components:

Air (digging does increase the air, but so do worms)

Water (digging can increase water penetration) but if not designed well it can lead to erosion

Micro-organisms (digging kills many of these). Mulching provides them habitat

Nutrients (plants including weeds can mine for nutrients and make good air pockets with their long roots) Biochar can boost the nutrients in the soil as well as increase habitat for micro-organisms.

What could be more satisfying than Digging?

Simple No-dig Gardens

No-dig gardens can be designed to capture and filter the rain-water and protect the soil and micro-organisms from erosion. No-dig gardening

is physically easier and faster to set up

suppresses weeds

can regenerate soil (fertile, rocky, sandy or solid clay)

requires less effort

uses waste materials and

evolves into a beautiful garden

Our abundant little no-dig garden perches on rock-solid subsoil that could not be dug by man or woman.

No dig gardening requires a little patience but the soil is regenerated, fertility is enhanced and the organisms are constantly building in numbers.

Joyous Songs of Worm Charmers

There are many traditional farming techniques where the nutrients and organisms in local forests are brought to their fields to ‘seed’ worms and nutrients into the fields to improve fertility. Some people have turned it into a quirky sport like worm charming.

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It is hard to find a productive balance between annual and perennial food plants. Annuals reward us with abundance for their short period growth, whereas perennials do more than just produce food – they give us microclimates, habitat, water filtration, fuel, condensation capture, erosion control, mulch.

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A lot of people wonder where they can settle to build a more sustainable lifestyle.
Most people think that it all depends on climate and soil quality.
Here are some permaculture Ideas for the selection of your new home

The priorities for choosing a site:

A likeable community with whom I could feel a useful and valued part. Choose a site within a community that values its natural environment.

Good climate preferably Subtropical or temperate site with minimal frost, preferably in good rainfall area unless you enjoy a dry climate.

A slope that faces the morning sun or you will be faced with many more problems than you may bargain for (including hot wind, hot sun, slower plant growth etc).

Good soil or at least clay soil.

Bonus EXTRAS would include: An existing canopy of fruit trees, as in our system we bought an old orchard (though this could harbour hazardous chemical residues, check the soil first). A site that is not too far from other people, specialist services such as health services and public transport so you can start reducing your reliance on a motorcar. Most other features including improved soil by good water management, you can build yourself.

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Our Scarecrow’s mandala garden is one year old and some weeds like sneaking in as we eat the veggies up. Aged grass clippings work perfectly to keep the seedling snug and warm over winter. The chickens patrol the borders to help deter snails and the geese poop uphill to maintain fertility. This garden was popular with people on our last open day because it showed them how much you can grow with fun in part shade.

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Trees produce a lot of goods and services worldwide. Observation is the key to Permaculture. Through observation we build our knowledge and community understanding of plants and their beauty. Here is April’s celebration about what there is to love about Trees.

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